HE FORGAVE YOUR SINS “And Peter said to them, Repent ye, and be baptized unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38).
This promise is yours also, for you have laid hold upon it (Acts 2:39). Your sins have been removed “as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12). They have been blotted out as a thick cloud that appears in the sky and then vanishes forever (Isa. 14:22). When the Lord forgive, He forgives completely: He remembers you sins no more (Heb. 8:12). You do not need to carry their load any longer. Do not let the Devil continue to bring them back to you mind to accuse you. God has freely forgiven you, not for any good thing that you have done but because of what Christ has done (Eph. 1:7). You are forgiven “for his name’s sake” (1 John 2:12).
HE JUSTIFIED YOU. “And whom he called, then he also justified; and when he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:30).
When Christ died upon the cross, he bore the punishment of your sins and mine that we might go free. “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:5-6) This means that God’s judgement of our sin fell upon Christ. Since the demands of God’s justice have been satisfied, He can now justify those who receive Christ as their Savior. This is something more than being forgiven. A man may be forgiven by another for some sin he has committed, but he cannot be justified; the blight of his guilt still remains. But if you are in Christ, God looks upon you as if you had never sinned at all (Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1, 18; Gal. 3:24). Your faith has been reckoned for righteousness (Rom. 4:5). Now it is your privilege and responsibility to live up to your high calling (Eph. 4:1).
HE MADE YOU A CHILD OF GOD. “But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12)
You expressed your faith in Christ by being buried with Him in baptism (Rom. 6:3). There it was that in obedience of faith you were identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. You were born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). A mighty miracle of regeneration was performed by God, translating you from darkness to light (1 Pet. 2:9), from death to life (John 5:24), from the power of Satan unto God (Acts 26:18). You were born into the family of God. You are now an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17). You are just as much a child of God as you will ever be. Just as a new-born babe is fully accepted into the home as a member of the family, so is the babe in Christ fully accepted into the Father’s family. Now that you are His child, the Lord intends for you to grow up in Christ just as new-born babe grows to maturity.